1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a connector mounting arrangement for mounting a connector on a panel. More specifically, the invention relates to a connector mounting arrangement which is suitable for mounting a connector on a panel, such as a vehicular body panel, so that the connector is received in a mounting hole formed in the panel for connecting a wire harness arranged on the side of a vehicular body to another wire harness on the side of a vehicular door.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Conventionally, various types of connector mounting arrangments for mounting a connector on a vehicular door panel for connecting a wire harness on the side of a vehicular body to another wire harness on the side of a vehicular door have been proposed. In one of such connector mounting arrangements, one end of a wire harness extending between a vehicular body panel and a door panel is drawn out of the door panel to be connected to a panel-mounted type connector so that the wire harness is connected, by means of a connector, to another wire harness arranged inside of the vehiclar body panel.
This connector comprises a housing of elliptic cross section, a flange portion formed on the outer periphery of one end of the housing for contacting the edge portion of a mounting hole formed in the vehicular body panel, and a resilient engaging portion which projects from the housing to be associated with the flange for holding the edge portion of the mounting hole. On the opposite side to the flange portion, the connector has a hood portion for engaging another connector mounted at the end of the another wire harness. In addition, one end of a waterproof grommet is held between the flange portion and the edge portion of the mounting hole.
Such a panel-mounted type connector is also disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 55-44317. This connector comprises a housing for receiving therein a plurality of terminal fittings, a flange portion, a resilient engaging portion and a hood portion. One end of a waterproof grommet is held between the flange portion and the edge portion of a mounting hole formed in a panel, so as to prevent the entrance of water through the mounting hole.
By the way, the size of the mounting hole formed in the pannel may be changed. In such a case, if the connector is mounted in a mounting hole of a greater diameter than that of the mounting hole sized to the housing, the gap between the resilient engaging portion and the flange portion is increased. As a result, it is impossible to surely hold the one end of the waterproof grommet, so that the water-resistance is reduced. Therefore, it is required to manufacture new connectors sized to the changed mounting hole.
However, if such new connectors are used, the connectors sized to the previous mounting hole remain as useless stock items so as to come to nothing.